Panda Security, the advanced endpoint protection based in Spain, has updated its global partner program to support partners who want to invest and grow their businesses beyond legacy endpoint protection.

Panda not only is relevant to traditional resellers, but also wants to develop a network of specialized partners who can become, or already are, MSPs, MSSPs, ISPs and cloud service providers.

Panda is being acquired by WatchGuard Technologies. The combined company will provide centralized management of advanced threat detection and response functionality fueled by AI, behavior-profiling techniques and security event correlation.

Nick Motyl, Panda’s head of sales for North America, tells us that after several years and a few different runs at success in North America, the management team decided that the only way to scale quickly enough to succeed was to move to a 100% channel program.

Panda Security’s Nick Motyl

“In order to do that properly and efficiently, we had to make sure that we had an easy-to-understand program that clearly explains how to grow within it and, most importantly, protects our channel partners both with deal registration and incumbency, ensuring that it will help grow their business while maintaining their profitability,” he said.

One of the questions that challenged Panda was “what’s going to be different this time around,” Motyl said.

“The channel had seen some half-hearted attempts at growth that left us with a hodgepodge of varied levels, protections and margins that weren’t enforced, creating an uneven playing field,” he said. “Now, we’ve completely revamped protections, levels and trainings. Most importantly, we also rolled out a state-of-the-art partner portal to help our partners to be as efficient as possible. We’ve come up with new SKUs specifically to target net-new business, new products to help our partners close deals faster and better support our customers, and completely redefined our discounting system to be clear, concise and profitable for our partners.”

MSSPs are “one huge arm of focus” for the new program, Motyl said.

“We’ve revamped our billing model and strategy to be much more flexible,” he said. “With our virtual licensing option, partners can have the flexibility of on-demand licensing to distribute to customers while still getting volume purchasing incentives. Our product portfolio is now targeted at enabling MSPs and MSSPs to build value and differentiation into their security offerings, unlike some of our competition, who have product lines that compete with the MSP/MSSP business model.”

The program is designed to help partners ensure that they are able to make a solid return on our products, by offering a solution to their customers at a competitive price in a typically overpriced market, Motyl said.

“That being said, the program is just one piece of what will give our partners a competitive advantage,” he said. “With our commitment to the channel, newly revitalized support for both partners and customers, and the ability to offer a consolidated, easy-to-manage, centralized endpoint security product, our partners can rest assured that we will help them win new customers, retain current customers and expand their overall business value.”

More than 30 million users in 180 countries use Panda to keep their devices, data and businesses safe. While the majority of the organization’s business comes from Europe, the rest of the world is catching up with Panda, owning 10% of the endpoint detection and response (EDR) market globally.

“Our portfolio of solutions is recognized by both analysts and customers as the most advanced and innovative in the industry,” says Gianluca Busco Arre, Panda’s vice president of sales and operations for North America. “Thanks to the tools designed to promote our channel growth, such as the Panda Partner Portal, partners can now manage and control the entire life cycle of their customers and licenses in the most seamless way possible.”